Chicago returns to Northeast Ohio with Styx, timeless classics for ‘Windy Cities Tour’

CLEVELAND, Ohio – “Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?”You can bet that Chicago fans do. That’s because the brass-powered Rock & Roll Hall of Fame unit is headed back to Northeast Ohio for a concert at Blossom Music Center Wednesday, Aug. 5. They share a bill with classic rockers Styx for one of the summer’s premiere jukebox shed shows.You might also think founding trumpeter-songwriter for Lee Loughnane doesn’t share the sentiment about time. It’s not that his “diamond watch has stopped cold dead,” as described in Chicago’s 1969 smash hit “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”No, it’s because of the timeless nature of the band’s output across seven decades.Even after all those years on the road — Chicago still performs roughly 100 shows a year — Loughnane said the desire to perform has never really left.“I’ve never gotten to a point where I didn’t want to go out and play a show,” Loughnane offered. “I can think of a lot worse things I could be doing with my life.”Chicago’s lifetime achievements include two Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, Founding Artists of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Chicago street dedicated in their honor, and keys to and proclamations from an impressive list of US cities. Oh, and there’s that little induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a decade ago, too.One of the most enduring and distinctive bands of the rock and roll era, Chicago coined the genre “brass rock” with record sales top 100 million mark – including 21 Top 10 singles, 5 consecutive Number One albums, 11 Number One singles and 5 Gold singles. At 78, Loughnane is now the lone active original member regularly performing with the band, though he resists the idea that he’s become merely a caretaker of Chicago’s legacy.“I still feel like a band member,” he told Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer recently. “The guys we’ve brought in are incredible musicians. They’ve listened to our music all their lives, and we’re all having a great time playing the legacy that we built through the years. The audiences aren’t getting tired of listening to it, and we’re not getting tired of playing it.”That legacy includes one of rock’s most distinctive sounds, where horns weren’t an embellishment but a driving force. Loughnane insists Chicago never set out to reinvent rock music. But they did. An incredible 25 of their 38 albums have been certified platinum. The band has a total of 48 gold and platinum awards. They’re among the top 10 best-selling acts of all time. “We were fundamentally just doing what was put in front of us,” he said. “We started doing arrangements of songs along with our originals, and it became what we’re known for.”The group’s 1970s wall-of-sound output did big box office, while a stint as ballad hitmakers during the 1980s kept the band relevant in the encroaching MTV era. The band always delivers a fan-favorite-heavy set, so expect your favorite radio classics like “25 or 6 to 4,” “Saturday in the Park,” “Make Me Smile” and “Questions 67 & 68.” There’s a quiet confidence in the way Loughnane talks about Chicago. After all this time, millions of albums sold and a catalog that has become woven into the soundtrack of generations, the band’s founding horn is always looking forward to the next show.Chicago returns to Blossom Music Center this summer alongside classic rockers Styx for the “Windy Cities Tour” (the city was once homebase for both outfits). It marks the first time the two giants have toured together.Loughnane admitted there wasn’t any grand strategy behind the pairing.“I think both bands were looking around for someone to partner with,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve actually played together, so it’s going to be an interesting pairing.”Don’t expect the sort of onstage collaborations that highlighted Chicago’s previous tours with Earth, Wind & Fire. “I think I would’ve known by now [if we were going to do that],” Loughnane said with a laugh.Loughnane remains especially passionate about late guitarist Terry Kath, whom many musicians regard as one of rock’s most underrated guitar players of all time.“Before we heard Jimi Hendrix, I heard Terry Kath,” Loughnane said. “He was already doing stuff like [Jimi]. Terry got overlooked because of the success of the horn section.”If there’s one frustration that still lingers, it’s that Kath rarely appears on lists of rock’s greatest guitarists: “He still doesn’t make [those] lists that I think he should be making.”As one of the most active legacy acts out there, Loughnane credits the fans and the songs themselves for the longevity Chicago has had over the years.“The music speaks for itself,” he said. “The music still works.”Fans, he says, rarely talk about individual hits anymore. Instead, they tell him where those songs fit into their lives.“It’s more the period of their life,” he said. “The situations they were in that the songs recall for them. It’s really cool to be told that. It makes you want to play it even better.”Perhaps the most intriguing part of the conversation? Chicago’s future. With founders Robert Lamm and James Pankow sidelined by health issues and the loss of founding saxophonist Walter Parazaider (who died at age 81, weeks after this interview took place), Loughnane is the band’s last surviving original member currently on the road. “The [other] guys aren’t retired. If they can get their health together, they’ll be out playing with us. It’s not that they want to be home. It’s just unavoidable at this point.”The question naturally arose: Can Chicago outlive its founders and go on forever — even without any original members left? After all, fellow classic rocks acts Foreigner, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others are an ongoing test of this hypothesis; other bands like Yes seem poised to follow. It’s one Loughnane has surely pondered, because he didn’t hesitate.“I do,” he said when asked if Chicago could continue indefinitely without any original members remaining. That bridge, he said, will be crossed when it arrives.Sounds a bit like the sentiment from the 1976 hit “If You Leave Me Now”— “A love like ours is love that’s hard to find/How could we let it slip away?”Chicago and Styx perform at Blossom Music Center is located at 1145 W Steels Corners Rd, Cuyahoga Falls this Wednesday, August 5 at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.